muddeprived

I think i may have saw cam bolts on the axle ends.....or am i thinking of the tj? I gotta check.

dabeast727

actually it proboboy is caster... mine has that too, if you stand in front of your jeep and look at it from maybe 15 feet away, does it look like the tires go outwards towards the bottom?

muddeprived

it's hard to tell. you got the wobble too?

dabeast727

nope mine doesnt wobble anymore. it used to shimmy right around 35mph, then i added 1.5" spacers to the front to correct for my winch/bumper setup and i think it might have still wobbled for a while but stopped. death wobble is very mysterious. I wish i could correct for my wierd *** angle in the front, but it hasnt worn the tires wierd or anything, i would have thought it would put more wear on the inside of the tire, but nope. my tires do have like different tread thicknesses on each tread lug though haha. I will say this though when i go over some bumps, it starts on a death wobble (similar to that on a motorcycle, steering column violent shifts left to right in increaseing increments untill the bike finally falls) and continues to increas in intensity to the point htat i feel like my wheels are falling off and i pull over, but then just before that happens it regains control rather abruptly and then its fine. i honsestly dont know wtf is up. id say a good Four Wheeling mechanic should be able to align it properly, hat is your best bet. Go to a 4x4 shop and ask them if there is one around.

muddeprived

My wobble is automatic, a little different from yours. You can feel the shimmy starting around 35 (very lightly) and then around 45 the steering wheel starts shaking back and forth, and then any speed above 50 converts the jeep into a chocolate milk shaker. No abnormal wear on the tires either. I want to get an alignment right now before my arms shake off but i need to lift it an additional 1" for clearance so i'm waiting till after that.

I'm gonna try to measure the caster angle. I think using the flat head on the ball joints would tell me?

muddeprived

hey man, this is off topic but there are some dudes in the for sale forum pm-ing you and emailing ya about those parts you had for sale (skids and stuff). Thought i'd let ya know. I was the first one to ask you about them back in january so maybe you forgot bout it since it's been a while.

dabeast727

haha yup you are correct, ill go check taht out. thanks for the heads up./

Tangmere

My Cherokee drives fine 99% of the time but occasionally when I hit a bump at speed, like expansion joints on a bridge, I'll get a pretty bad shimmy up front and it goes away as quickly. Is this the infamous death wobble?

Kyle

It could be signes of it, I would start checking all of the things that may cause it and see if you can come up with something.

dabeast727

yea mine started up again not too long ago. replaced all my wheel bearings and lowered the front ends tires psi. sometimes it wont do it at all but usually its around 45. my ball joints are mildly bad and i have a slightly worn bushing in my track bar. my jeep mechanic can fix it but i dont really feel like spending the money haha. my tires are worn in such a wierd way, some tread lugs are as much as 1/3 or 1/4 of an inch higher/lower than others. my shocks are probobly playing a role too. a new set of all terrains will fix the problem though, but eventually will get eaten up too. mine used to just spaz out when i hit bumps but now i can slam bumps and nothign happens, just a light shimmy which is always present. a very odd thing this death wobble is. im about to just throw a d44 up there that should be heavy enough to hold it down haha

muddeprived

When you speak of your tread wearing in a weird way, do you mean some lugs are sticking up and some are worn down? My buddy's xj has this exact same problem. He just bought the bighorns recently and they started wearing like this up front. We figured out that his lower ball joints were bad and causing this. When we took off the knuckle, the lower joint wiggled in the socket. It was so bad with so much play. Replace those ball joints or you'll be replacing tires often.

dabeast727

oh yea i know. it needs gears, 33" tires (50% tread 32s right now), ball joints and alignment. if one is done, the rest need to be done too, so basically im not doing any of it right now. what it all boils down to is the tires, as long as those last me im good. In 2 weeks ill be out of school and wont need it as a daily driver ever again (4 years on college wont have it there, unless i want it, and after i graduate my parents are nice enough to buy me a new car) so basically its not seeing any work for at least the next year as ill be in a dorm my 1st year anyway.... But new shocks may be in order too, stupid death wobble is terrible. I hate it. Its b/c of the dana 30, its such a light duty axle. It may be able to run big tires and lockers but as far as size its tiny, the sissors-type steering system doesnt help either. The only 4x4s that dont have IFS are always like super duty trucks with 60s or 44s up front, or at a minimum like a 10 bolt chevy, all these axles are very heavy. This is the essential cause of death wobble, or at least where it begins. If you dont want it you gotta make sure every thing under there is perfectly in order.

Maybe ill just put on some weight i always thought that might work, like put on a tierod that is just massive, like 1 inch thick solid steel and maybe another stabilizer, maybe add a truss for a lil' extra mass too...

muddeprived

I don't think the dana 30 is the cause of the death wobble. I don't have any wobble on my dana 30. Get that front end fixed and set up properly and you won't either. Weight will not solve the wobble issue. It's just added stress.

dabeast727

added stress that the light duty 30 cant handle.... but yea, i cant wait to get it set up. its a whoooooole lotta work though just to be running some 33" all terrains though. idk its gonna cost me like $2,500 for all that stuff.... thats half of what i paid for the jeep. its that versus like $3,000-$3,500 if i went to 35s (since id need some bigger front springs and longer rear shackles plus drop brackers and maybe high-steer). It may be a long damn time before anything happens

Tangmere

I got under there with a pry bar but couldn't find any play. I also jacked up the front and the wheels seem tight but I did notice that the steering stabiliser was leaking. I'll put on a new one (OEM) and see what that does.